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CRASH Your guide to travel thru the underground Sep 1992
INNER SPACE TRAVEL ISSUE
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GREETINGS
from the Crash Crew
As Spaceship Earth becomes more finite every day and just keeps taking
us in...uh, circles, we slowly become more aware of the planet's and
our physical limits. We are like animals who thought they roamed free,
and have come upon a fence, and now feel trapped and forced to face
the Earth as the prison it is. Well...
No reason to get all fucking morose about it! So while scientists
desperately search for a way to blast our way out of here with roaring
shuttlecrafts, spacestations, and moon shots, we've decided to explore
a different path, one that's not nearly as noisy.
In this inner travel issue, we explore the rather serene frontiers of
astral travel, mail art networking, virtual reality, and mental road
trips. All of which are forms of trekking that leave behind that
cumbersome piece of luggage known as the human body.
So lock yourself in your room, take something for your brain, and
relax. Onwards to the landscape within.
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DEBRIS
Networking and information
* THE PEACE FARM is a non-profit organization formed in 1986 to raise
public awareness of the role of Pantex in U.S. nuclear weapons
production, and of the risk it poses to to the health and safety of
workers and others and to the environment of the Texas panhandle. The
Peace Farm is also involved in peace, justice, and environmental
issues, including the impact of military spending on human needs and
economic development, alternative energy, the continuing sanctions on
the people, especially children, of Iraq, and nuclear weapons testing.
In cooperation with the Red River Peace Network, we sponsor one or
more peace camps each year, with guest speakers, workshops, and
activities for children. The Peace Farm welcomes visitors, and there
is always work for volunteers. The Farm is located on 20 acres south
of U.S. 60, across from the rail exit from the plant and about halfway
between FM 1912 and FM 2373. The Peace Farm, HCR 2 Box 25, Panhandle,
TX 79068, USA; 806/335-1715.
* ALTERNATIVES TO THE PEACE CORPS: A Directory of Third World and US
Volunteer Opportunities. A guide to voluntary service organizations,
technical support programs, work brigades, study tours, and
alternative travel in the Third World. Raises important questions
about the role of volunteers in developing countries, and offers a
critical examination of the Peace Corps as the traditional route for
people wishing to gain "international experience." With resource guide
and bibliography. $6.95, Sept. 1992 edition. Food First Books, 145 9th
St., San Francisco, CA 94103, USA; 800/888-3314.
* FREE INFORMATION: Media Action Kit ("Do it yourself publicity").
Access to talk shows, mailing lists, press packets, etc. Write: Media
Distribution Co-op, 1745 Louisiana St., Lawrence, KS 66044, USA
(please include a 29c stamp).
* GOOD LIFE STUDY TOURS: The study tour into the good life of the
Malayalee people, an ancient civilization of 30 million, in South
India, is now under the auspices of EARTHWATCH Expeditions. Come to
Kerala and help unwrap this mystery, a unique combination of needed
human characteristic necessary for survival through the 21st century,
low consumption of the Earth's resources, and small families.
Earthwatch Expeditions, 680 Mouth Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02272;
800/776-0188, 617/926-8200.
* LOOMPANICS UNLIMITED: Contains everything you can't and never will
be able to locate in Crown Books: false ID; creating new identities;
alternative energy/housing/business; everything you need to know about
drugs, including legal highs; hackers' manuals; homemade weapons and
explosives; self-defense; underground economy; plus the complete works
of Robert Anton Wilson, mad genius of the Illuminatus Trilogy &
numerous other reality-dissolving tomes. Send $2 to P.O. Box 1197,
Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA.
* GLOBAL EXCHANGE REALITY TOURS: An exciting alternative to the
sterile, commercial vacation. We organize trips to countries
throughout the Third World -- from Brazil to India to Zimbabwe, as
well as trips to U.S. locations such as Appalachia and Native American
reservations. You'll meet with farmers, religious leaders, women's
groups, and unions, as well as government figures and opposition
leaders. You'll visit hospitals, schools, and villages and spend time
with families in their homes. And you'll get a taste of the local
culture, with plenty of great music and good food. Plus, you'll make
friends that last a lifetime. Global Exchange is a non-profit
research, education, and action center. Write: Global Exchange/Tours,
2141 Mission St. #202, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA; 415/255-7296.
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TAKE A MENTAL ROAD TRIP!
by John Labovitz
Are you getting bored? Jaded of the current cultural opinions? Hungry
for new ideas? Try traveling! But don't order that airplane ticket yet
-- let's try a brief journey of the mind. Whether you like traveling
by your nose or by maps, the psychic landscape can be a fascinating
place to visit!
The physical space we normally consider "reality" could be said to be
overlaid by a psychic space, in which resides ideas and other mental
material about particular parts of the physical space. Some cultures
have this concept ingrained as an integral part of the way they see
the world. For instance, the Aborigine people in Australia have a
concept of the Dreamtime, which is a kind of eternal moment in which
events are happening, have always happened, and always will happen,
that define and create the physical objects they see in their lives.
If, for some reason, the Dreamtime didn't exist, then their physical
world would not exist either.
I think Western culture has a form of this psychic space as well,
although it is not so obvious. The front door of my house is not just
a door; it is also a kind of marker of events that have happened at
the front door, such as meeting a friend for the first time, or
receiving a sad letter, or chasing away Jehovah's Witnesses. These
events could be said to reside in psychic space, but are connected to
the physical space of the door. If I think of the door, I can "see"
the events that involved the door, and if I think of one of the
events, I can "see" the door.
Even though this psychic space is unique for every person, we can try
to create maps to show others how we see the world both physically and
mentally.
When we travel to places we don't know, we can create a psychic map of
the place by thinking about the landscape we see, the people we meet,
the things we do. If we can somehow communicate that map to other
people, then those people can experience both the physical space of
the place, as well as various psychic spaces.
A map can take different forms. It could be something you *see,* like
a photograph or painting; or something you *read,* like a novel or
magazine article; or something you *hear,* like a song or spoken
story; or something you *do,* like a ritual or a dance. A map could
even be a combination of all these different forms and more -- such as
a movie or a virtual reality system.
When we follow a psychic map -- read the novel, watch the movie,
listen to the song, perform the ritual -- we travel some of the same
roads that the creator of the map also traveled, and we can recognize
the landmarks along the way. But each of our experiences is unique and
depends on the life and personality of the individual traveler.
Community and culture help to create common psychic maps. Mass media
generally depends on these common cultural maps; a group of people can
see the same movie or read the same book or perform the same ritual
and find common landmarks and ideas, even though each person is an
individual who has lived his or her own life.
Myths and folktales are more examples of common maps. On one level, a
folktale is just a story, perhaps about ordinary people doing ordinary
things. But on another level, a folktale embodies common traits and
personalities shared by the majority of the culture. A folktale is
popular because the people of a culture can identify with it; the
people can follow the map and experience the journey of the characters
of the story.
In large cultures, there may be many maps, and some of them may even
conflict. Perhaps your storehouse of maps needs to be expanded. Or
maybe you need to create your own maps, and share them with other
like-minded travelers of the mind.
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MAIL MYSELF TO YOU
by John Held Jr.
My adventures in mail art started in 1975 when I was living in Utica,
New York, and trying to find out more about the artistic use of rubber
stamps. My first lead came when I saw an article in *The New York
Times* about a Rhode Island rubber stamp company called Bizarro. I
wrote the owners, Kenn and Pumpkin Speiser, and they in turn informed
me of the mail art network and the use these artists were making of
visual and textural rubber stamps.
Living in the cultural isolation of upstate New York, the mail art
network became a revelation in which I was able to communicate with a
like-minded group of artists all over the globe. One of my first and
most active correspondents was Ray Johnson, who lived in Locust
Valley, Long Island, and is generally considered to be the pioneer of
the genre. In the very first issue of the *Village Voice* (1955), Ray
was featured in a story stating that he had a mailing list of 300
correspondents. More then anyone else, Ray is responsible for
establishing the poetic quality of postal communication between
artists.
During the past decade the field of mail art has exploded. Individuals
interested in social and political alternatives have joined those
interested in artistic alternatives. The dream of the avant-garde has
been realized in mail art. Anyone can be an artist. In fact, the term
"art" has come to be suspect, and the preferred usage in
correspondence circles is now "networking," with those active in the
field known as "networkers." Mail art has evolved into a post-art
strategy.
It is not far-fetched for me to state that many of my best friends are
correspondents that I have never met. I have been in contact with many
of them for ten years or more. We share the ups and downs of our daily
lives, and secrets that we are often unwilling to impart to those in
closer proximity. Mail art is shared communication, creativity, and
confidences.
Now in its fifth decade, mail art is no longer a purely postal based
medium. Correspondents have made efforts to meet; sometimes in large
gatherings expressly for that purpose. This year has been the year of
the Decentralized Worldwide Networker Congress, which is a structure
that encourages mail artists to meet other cultural and social
activists engaged in other alternative cultural networks (such as
computer bulletin boards, rubber stamps, cassette culture, and zines).
As a "decentralized" congress, the Networker Congresses encourage not
only geographically diverse meetings, but alternatives to face-to-face
meetings. The Crackerjack Kid (AKA Chuck Welch) has been very active
in telecommunications this year, linking the mail art community with
computer enthusiasts. He calls this type of congressing "meta-
networking."
Perhaps this gets to the theme "inner travel" as explored in this
issue of The Crash Update. Mail art is a way of exploring the world
from your mailbox. It's cheap (unless it gets out-of-hand, as is
likely after many years of activity), less time consuming then
traveling in real time, and deletes constricts in stereotyping, which
happens when face-to-face encounters occur. In fact, I don't know if
some of my correspondents are male or female, black or white, rich or
poor -- none of these things really matter when a meeting of minds is
conducted in a networked situation. All that matters is the quality of
the connection.
So far I have only written of networking as a one-to-one
correspondence, but it is often much more than that. Some networkers
never write letters at all but concentrate on entering mail art shows,
which bring the diverse community of correspondents together. Mail art
shows are a way of extending the network, because at the conclusion of
the exhibition (all entries are shown and no fees are charged to
enter) documentation in the form of names and addresses of
contributors are sent to all the participants. From the documentation
received, correspondents can be picked at random. It is a good guess
that mail art show participants are attuned to answering their mail in
one form or another, and this is a good way for one to extend their
contacts in the field.
*****
I've provided some mail art show information to set you on your way.
Happy motoring!
October 27, 1992: Ghosts from the Past. Any size, format, or style.
All work will be exhibited at a Halloween AIDS Event in Tokyo. Send to
Sargent, 1-34-2 808 Komagome, Toshima-Ku, Tokyo 170, Japan.
November 1, 1992: Mail Your Dream. Send to Equipe de Arte Postal, R.
Capri 276, CEP 05425, Sao Paulo SP, Brazil.
December 30, 1992: Who Eats Whom and Why? Send to Angela and Henning
Mittendorf, PF. 50 03 65, D-6000 Frankfurt M. 50, Germany.
December 30, 1002: FeMail Art on rubber stamped envelopes. Send to the
Stamp Art Gallery, 466 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.
Ongoing: Siberia As It Is. Postcard size. Send to Sergey Tikhanov, PO
Box 29, Novosibirsk, Siberia 630005, Russia.
For a newsletter published three times a year (January, May,
September) with over 180 mail art show listings, send $6 subscription
to Global Mail, Ashley Parker Owens, PO Box 597996, Chicago, IL 60659,
USA.
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VIRTUAL REALITY...ACTUAL MIND CONTROL
by Miles Poindexter
I've been hearing about it as much as many of you. "Virtual reality"
is coming and from the way some people are talking you'd think it was
the next stage of evolution! Well, it's not, unless we are de-evolving
into sloths, which in that case we are one step closer to that lump of
flesh than the genus *couch-potato-ontos* (no "e," Dan), our
television-feeding ancestors.
Virtual Reality, when it gets here, will be a giant step in the
evolution of escapism. So where's the harm in a little escape from the
real world once in a while? There's no harm in almost anything done
once in a while, but if virtual reality becomes only one half as
popular as TV is today, people will be doing it much more than "once
in a while."
Before we go on, let's look at a brief history of escapism. The
ancient paintings on cave walls could have been used as escape. Our
ancestors may have sat in the cave and stared at pictures of buffalo
and pretended they were outside ready to do battle with the real
thing. This form of escape would take place in our minds, in the same
way people create whole worlds in their imagination when they read.
This is known as "participatory escapism." When movies and television
came along, people didn't have to use their imagination. All they had
to do was let the sounds and images fill their heads and ignore the
room they were in. This is "passive escapism" and does nothing to
stimulate our imagination, which is an important part of being human.
Virtual reality is a formidable step into passive escapism.
Besides the rather dated argument that escapism of this kind dulls the
mind and an individual's ability to be creative, what other negative
aspects are there to VR? For one thing, it's a mind control device.
With the proper, pleasant stimulation of your visual, auditory, and
tactile (touch) senses, corporations will be able to subliminally
brainwash you to buy anything. There will be commercials in virtual
reality -- you can count on it. There will also be news on VR and when
you watch the news and the leader of a country comes on, you may
receive "pleasant skin sensation #4" to relax your mind and open it up
so the words just fall right in. Sexual stimuli could be triggered
every time you see an "enemy" being bombed, making you love war.
The possibilities are endless, but let's look at one more negative
aspect of VR that goes against everything The Crash Network wants to
inspire. VR creates apathy. For example, let's say you've always
wanted to go to Greece. So you go to your nearest VR center and enter
the country by computer. Even though everything you experience would
be only what the government or corporations wanted you to see, you
might come out of there thinking you'd actually visited the country.
Let's look even farther into the future when VR can stimulate every
sense, including taste. Not only that but let's say there is a new VR
experience where you can actually hook up with another person in
Greece so that everything this person sees, hears, eats, etc., will
stimulate your senses also. Exactly like being in the country for a
while, yes? No. Who's to say there is really a person there doing all
these things? Most likely it's a recorded sensory stimuli that's been
carefully edited by powerful people to keep you ignorant.
If all this sounds unbelievable just remember what you were allowed to
see of Iraq before, during, and even after the "war." Nothing gets on
TV without the approval of the corporations that own the channels. And
nothing will be allowed to be experienced in virtual reality except
what these same corporate executives want you to experience. After
all, they do own the stuff.
------
INFO-E
Practical information about Ecstasy
**********************
The multifaceted jewel
Ecstasy catalyzes a powerful experience that takes many different
forms. It can provoke an intense, energetic, spiritual high or lead to
warm, loving relaxation. It can connect people freely and openly with
each other or promote deep inner thinking and analysis. Sensual yet
not necessarily sexual, beautiful and sometimes dangerous, Ecstasy
covers a wide range of human emotions, experiences, and passions. What
you put into it is what you get out, so be sure to explore the many
facets of the experience.
**********************************
Those little annoying side effects
Although some people say it has no side effects, Ecstasy is not the
perfect drug. Users have reported a variety of mild physical symptoms
such as jaw clenching, teeth grinding, eye wiggles, tightened muscles,
sweating, chills, increased heart rate, blood pressure and body
temperature, auditory effects, nausea, shaking, and next-day
sleepiness. Occasionally it can cause toxic reactions in people with
asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, epilepsy, psychosis, or
depression. Remember, Ecstasy is a powerful drug. Treat it -- and your
body -- with respect.
**************
As time passes...
Myths abound concerning Ecstasy's effects after repeated usage. Most
claims (such as that it causes Parkinson's disease or drains spinal
fluid) actually refer to other drugs or common misconceptions.
Although scientists suspect some nerve terminal damage and
neurotransmitter depletion in the brain based on animal research, the
true long-term effects and implications remain a mystery until further
human research becomes legal. By avoiding the temptation to use
Ecstasy too frequently, you can lessen the risk and have more fun.
************
Less is more
An active dose of Ecstasy depends on one's body weight, sensitivity,
and prior use. A typical "hit" contains 75-125 milligrams. Over 175
milligrams increases side effects for many users. Taking a larger dose
does not necessarily mean a better experience -- it may be more
"speedy," but less ecstatic.
******************
Methylenedi-what??
The chemical name for Ecstasy is "methylenedioxymethamphetamine," or
"MDMA" for short. Although it is derived from organic material, MDMA
itself does not occur in nature, and must be created in a complex
laboratory process.
MDMA was designed in 1914 by the Merck Company of Germany. However, it
was not used until the early 1970s when some therapists believed that
it helped people to bring out their true feelings in a peaceful and
open manner. For many years, Ecstasy (known then as "ADAM") remained
legal, known only among a fairly small group of people.
In the mid-1980s, Ecstasy exploded into the nightclub scene in Texas
and Britain. Fearing possible health risks, all scientific,
therapeutic, and recreational use by humans was banned by the United
States and British governments by 1986. Despite the objections of
scientists, doctors, and even judges, it was classified along with
marijuana, LSD, and heroin as a drug with no recognized medical use
and high abuse potential.
In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration permitted a group of
researchers in California to study the short-term effects of Ecstasy
on human health. The study is not yet completed.
***************************
Some tips for Ecstasy users
* Drink lots of water to replenish body fluids.
* From time to time, stop moving, take deep breaths and relax.
* Maintain a healthy lifestyle: eat a balanced diet, take vitamins,
and get plenty of sleep.
* Remember: Less is more. Large or frequent doses can increase the
side effects without adding to the experience.
* Much of what is sold as Ecstasy is not pure MDMA. Be cautious of
what you buy and who you buy from. Impurities may include
amphetamine, LSD, heroin, or PCP.
* Alcohol can reduce or change the effects of Ecstasy, and the
combination can cause undesired effects.
* Integrate what you've learned. Think about your thoughts and
feelings and try to apply them to real life.
*************
Stay informed
Useful facts about drugs can be hard to find among the anti-drug hype.
Here are some excellent references:
Ecstasy: The MDMA Story by Bruce Eisner (Ronin Press) contains a good
overview of the history, effects, use, science, and politics of MDMA.
Try asking your local bookstore to order it.
PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story by Ann & Alexander Shulgin (Transform
Press) is a novel about psychedelic chemicals and experiences,
including MDMA.
Pursuit of Ecstasy: The MDMA Experience by Jerome Beck and Marsha
Rosenbaum (forthcoming from SUNY Press) describes patterns of MDMA use
in the 1970s and 1980s.
Xochi Speaks, a full-color educational poster and booklet, provides
practical info on MDMA and eleven other psychedelic substances. Send a
stamped, self-addressed envelope for details to Lord Nose!, P.O. Box
170473R, San Francisco, CA 94117.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) funds
scientific research on MDMA and has publications available about MDMA
and other psychedelic drugs. Write to MAPS, 1801 Tippah Avenue,
Charlotte, NC 28205.
*****
We hope this flyer helps provide useful information and removes some
of the mysteries. Please be careful and responsible; learn from your
experiences. Together, we can make this a better world for everyone.
The publishers and distributors of this flyer do not condone or
encourage drug use. It's none of our business if you use drugs or not,
but if you do, be careful. And remember: drink lots of water.
-- from the Info-E flyer, distributed at raves and other events
---------------------------------------------
DISTURBIA: NIGHTMARES FROM THE SUBURBAN DREAM
You Can't Get There From Here
by Mary Lou
I was born in the woods of Maine in 1967. My mother was 18 and my
father was 24. My mother was the baby of eight children and grew up on
a farm with little money and never a piece of clothing that wasn't
handed down from an older sister. My father was the son of a mill
worker and he lived a comfortable life. He was in and out of the
Marines before they were married and his pride and joy was his Mustang
GT fastback, candy apple red.
His drinking was to become the reason for divorce and to this day,
nineteen years later he doesn't understand this.
My father moved back to his parent's house, where he still lives to
this day. I didn't see much of him after the divorce was final, maybe
every other weekend. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the
night and he would be standing beside my bed looking down at me. I
could always smell him there. I would sit up and reach out for him but
he always ran out of the room. In the morning I would tell my mother
that daddy had come to see me. She would always say that I must have
had a dream and that's all.
Visiting my father always ended terribly. I always had a fight with my
grandmother. She would be setting up the kitchen for morning and going
on and on about how terrible it was that I didn't go to church and
what a horrid person my mother was. I would be eating apple pie and
getting more and more angry but I could never talk to her. Instead I
liked to just stop eating...sit there...wait for her to pause long
enough to take a breath and then I would throw the plate with the pie
across the kitchen at her, always worked.
She would just about spit fire. Always made me wonder if all her
orations about Satan and hell weren't from her own personnal
experiences. But this always ended up in a spanking from my father. It
was always the same. He would take me into the bathroom and sit down
on the toilet. He would put me across his lap and pull down my pants.
I would be looking into the tub and after a while I would fall asleep
with the image of the drain going blurry in my eyes. No pain after
that.
In the morning my bottom would be stuck to the sheets with dried
blood. Grandma would be mad.
Soon visits to my father became less frequent. My mother was furious
about my bottom. She would cry and get mad at the same time. I never
knew what or if she said anything to him, I just know I started to
spend a lot of time at my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Thurl's house instead
of my father's.
My aunt and uncle lived in a big farm house with six kids, cows,
horses, chickens, ducks, pigs, and tons of fields and forests. My
cousins were wild and some of them didn't even go to school. It was
always so much fun to be there in the country with them and not even
think about Dad or my grandmother.
The girls had one room upstairs that they all shared. Three of them in
one bed. The boys had another room that they all shared. It was
plastered with centerfolds and deer antlers and hunting stuff. They
used to throw darts at the centerfolds. I remember once going into
their room and my oldest cousin Leon, who was eighteen, asked me if I
could read. I was nine and of course I could read!
"I got straight A's in school, " I told him. Leon didn't go to school.
He hadn't gone since he was 14. He asked me to read a paper to him
that he had under his mattress. I read it to him. He laughed and
laughed. My cousins David and Jimmy laughed too. I was reading a piece
from one of those porno magazines. Leon asked me if I could read
everything. I said "yes." He showed me a little book, It was "Old
Yeller." He opened it and tried to read some of it. He got stuck a lot
so I helped him. Leon was my favorite. I was always safe around him.
David was too nasty. He was always pulling up my shirt and once he
asked me and my cousin Kaylinda if we knew how to shift the haytruck.
We said no and he pulled out his cock and showed us how to shift.
Staying with my cousins was freedom! I loved sleeping in the bed
upstairs with my three female cousins. It was crowed and the house was
cold. Only wood stoves for heat and cooking. We had to bring water
from the spring too.
First thing in the morning, which was 4:30 am, we fed all the animals,
picked eggs from the hen house, brought wood from the shed and then we
got to eat. Breakfast was fresh eggs, bacon from last summer's pig,
raw milk from a cow and homemade bread. Afterwards, dishes were for
the girls and chopping wood was for the boys. Then it was time to
play.
All day we played either upstairs in the barn or down by the creek if
it was hot. We had a whole world in that barn. A world full of
discarded, musty old clothes, broken furniture and old appliances and
dishes. The best and most secret part of the barn was the boxes of old
girly magazines, hundreds of them -- dusty and torn, pages missing,
some infested with beetles. I was very young but I remember these
magazines well. Sex education made simple. One particular issue had a
cartoon that I tore out and carried with me for years. It was called
Luscious Lucinda. I was amazed by her pet tiger who would play like a
kitten with her and then as Lucinda lay back on her bed and opened her
long legs, the tiger would lick her pussy. This was my favorite issue.
Lucinda was a lucky girl and I knew it even at the age of nine.
The boys, Leon, David and Jimmy would always sneak up on us while we
were reading girly magazines and say,
"What are you looking at, Lessies?" (they meant lesbians), or, "What
do you see, girls? Want to learn it early?"
They were 14, 15, and 18 years of age at the time. Kaylinda and I were
both 9. Cindy and Gail were 16 and 17 and got to go out all the time.
We never knew where they went or what they did. But Gail now has three
babies from three men and Cindy has had two abortions and now has two
kids also. So they must have looked at those magazines too at one
time!
Those weekends at my cousins were the foundation of my sanity. Living
two lives became the norm. I would endure my Grandmother's hatred and
Catholic guilt dogma during the week, and then enjoy complete freedom
exploring my own sexuality on my cousins' farm. Fuck Catholicism. I'm
not going back to Maine. I'm free.
----------------------------------------
O.B.E. -- Travel at the Speed of Thought
by Miles Poindexter
O.B.E. stands for Out of Body Experience. If you want a good example
of the possibilities of astral travel, just look at the Cenobytes in
the movie "Hellraisers" (the first movie, not the second). As Pinhead
says, they are "explorers of other realms." They are a modern
projection of a belief as ancient as the Egyptians.
The common thread of this belief through the ages has been that we are
of two bodies. One is our physical self, bound to the earth and its
realities. The other is our spiritual body. No one is sure what this
entity is made of, though. Some say pure thought, others pure energy
of another source. But many believe that it carries on long after the
physical body ceases.
The ancient Egyptians believed in the Ka, a spiritual vehicle of the
mind and soul. Plato believed that the soul could leave the body and
travel. The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes a "Bardo-body," an
ethereal duplicate of the physical body. The existence of an
apparitional body is acknowledged in Mayayana Buddhism, and the
ancient Chinese said they could achieve OBE's during meditation.
Shamans in tribal cultures say they project themselves out-of-body at
will by achieving an ecstatic state of consciousness.
We decided to look into the subject of OBE's because of another
phenomena related to it: astral travel. This is the process of willing
your spiritual body or "astral body" to other places, both earthly and
otherwise. We were especially excited about the advantages of astral
travel over regular travel. In the astral form, OBE travelers report
moving about the earth plane like apparitions, invisible to all but
those they choose to appear to (we can think of infinite possibilities
for that little feature...), passing through walls and solid objects,
and traveling with the speed of thought. A non-earthly realm called
the "astral plane" is also a possible destination available only to
the astral traveler. Some people travel great distances, even to other
planets.
The easiest way to achieve an OBE is during sleep. Some believe that
most of us already experience OBE's in our sleep. They can also occur
during severe illness, near-death experiences, hypnosis, times of
great stress, trauma, fear, or meditation. Easy. Usually the astral
body departs through the head and is connected by a silver cord. It
can also simply rise up and float away. The OBE is often preceded by a
perception of strong and high-frequency vibrations.
Once you get the hang of it you will probably have one of two types of
OBE's. The parasomatic OBE is where the person feels that they are
inhabiting another body, just like their own. And the asomatic is
where there is no body, just a presence, a feeling of nothing. In both
types, senses of sight and sound are usually heightened. Many people
have these experiences in moments of extreme stress. One man was
working through the night for 7 days to finish an impossible deadline,
and taking amphetamines. He left his body and watched himself working
(typing) from overhead. He felt completely detached from his human
form below. Uncaring and unstressed, very light, filled with vitality,
calm. A strong feeling of well-being is common in many OBE stories.
Where do you go and what do you do when you're in astral form? We
looked into this and found three good examples: One women wrote about
finding a friend of hers sleeping in a strange room. She was able to
describe the room exactly. Her friend, who had stayed at the house of
a relative because of a crisis was amazed and mystified at the
detailed description. Not exactly our idea of fun...but the next two
examples are amazing.
A Frenchman named Yram (1884-1917) wrote a book called "Practical
Astral Travel" chronicling his OBE's. Yram paid OBE visits to a woman
whom he later married. The two traveled astrally together and
experienced ecstatic astral sex.
A New York man named Robert A. Monroe began having spontaneous OBE's
during his sleep in 1958. He wrote a book called *Journeys Out of the
Body* about it in 1971. In it he describes encountering other
intelligences, some of which provided assistance; demonic or subhuman
entities and thought-forms who attacked him; an energy presence of
overwhelming magnitude (he does not say whether or not it was "God");
the astral forms of other humans; and sexual experiences on the astral
level, which produced intense shocks by a seeming interflow of
electrons. He occasionally had difficulty reentering his body and on
one occasion entered a corpse by mistake.
Monroe identifies various levels of reality encountered in the OBE
state. Locale I is the here-and-now earth plane. Locale II is the
astral plane, where everyone goes in sleep, and where numerous beings
and entities and concepts of heaven and hell exist. It is infinite.
Locale III transcends time and space and appears to be a parallel
universe.
Monroe seems to have devised a new way of inducing OBE's. In 1975 he
obtained a patent for Hemi-sync, a technique using sound to create
brain waves associated with the OBE state. The sound synchronizes the
left and right hemispheres of the brain and induces physical sleep
while allowing the mind to remain alert and active.
What are the explanations people have devised for OBE's? One theory is
that we have a second self, or a "spirit" form or maybe a part of us
that is pure energy of some type, that does not die when the physical
body dies. Yet, if we are to believe the accounts of numerous astral
travelers, this spiritual body does "age" like our physical one,
because it looks exactly the same as our physical body.
Another theory is that OBE's are all in the mind. This isn't to say
that they are fake, but rather that the mind has more ways to sensing
than just the five senses. This way of seeing our bodies as if from
above is simply a powerful sensory ability, such as extra sensory
perception (ESP). Our brain creates this floating body image in our
dreams because we cannot accept our psychic abilities without a
plausible explanation. But this theory would not explain astral
travel. And are these people really dreaming when they have an OBE
experience?
Some evidence that OBE's are not dreams has come from research like
the case of Miss Z. In this 1968 experiment a woman who claimed to
have regular OBE's was placed in a room with a bed. Next to the bed
was a 6 foot high table with a clock on top. For 5 nights she slept
here and attempted to read the time and a random note placed next to
the clock each night by rising from her body and looking down on it.
Her brain waves and REM's were recorded each night. On the times she
was able to remember reading the note and clock, her alpha patterns
showed a stage 1 light sleep pattern, with no REM activity. This
reading at the time had never been described before in sleep research.
Stage 1 alpha patterns were always accompanied by REM's and was
considered a dream state. Miss Z did have REM activity at other times
of the night, but never when she described an OBE.
I'm looking forward to many of you trying this stuff after reading
this highly enlightening article. When in your astral form, come
visit. It'll be no problem putting you up since you won't need a bed
and you won't eat much.
--------------------
CONFESSION ANONYMOUS
by Pol I. Peptide (Jack Ruby Slippers)
It's early morning. Sleep-caked eyes. Sixth day in a row with my
contacts in. Don't know if they hurt; don't remember.
Still on the road. No more deserts. We're in San or Santa something
else. All green and the smell of the ocean. Lots of blonde boys and
girls, all tanned. A few asians, no blacks. No natives. They look as
if they do nothing but fuck and feel good.
Didn't conclude the Quest last night. Didn't let on. Some are too
strong. Can't be taken in. Not necessarily a fellow, but an equal. But
outside. No chains, no hacksaws. Just there and strong.
*****
"So that's her," he snickers in a friendly way. Smiles and shakes a
little. An acknowledgement but, a fear of admission. Doesn't want to
look too close for fear of a possible reflection. An equal; inside; no
hacksaw.
Looking at him as she walks away and knowing what to want. To be true
is not to pursue it. Acknowledge but do not pursue.
"You know why I'm there," nods and a hug, a small, revealing kiss is
exchanged. Laughter. He understands.
*****
He spells it out rather clearly with all this talk of 'confession.'
The exchange of power through knowledge. The confessor gives strength
to the confessed. Confessed reveals weakness through the wrestling of
confession. Borges has spelled out what this is like in his "Lottery
of Babylon." Do we propose to further such a nightmare? To continue
anthropomorphosizing it? To continue remaking ourselves in our own
image? To recognize it as another spirit?
We have dedicated everything to it. Blood sacrifices. It is the
strongest. Feel its vibrations in everything. It screams when metal
drags metal. Its stink fills the air when chemicals burn. Glimpsed its
face once in a refinery fire. Looked into its heart. Nearly went mad.
You will not ride spirit. Let some other be your horse. My lot is
cast...
*****
Still on the road. Never need to jack-off. Never spend money on
anything. Everyone's so willing. Beautiful. I'll return the favor
whenever I'm able. Promise. Politeness is so important in this world.
Politeness and the stink of the road.
----------------------
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-----------------
CRASH INFORMATION
Editors: Miles Poindexter, John Labovitz.
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------------------
END OF CRASH SEP92